Ano Gatzea

One of the most beautiful routes in our country is the route  Ano Lechonia - Ano Gatzea - ​​Agia Triada - Pinakates - Milies to Pelion train. Thirteen magical kilometers on its verdant slopes Pelion on one of the narrowest railway lines in the world (60 cm) that houses the 4 wagons of the "smudge", as it was once called train, to indicate the steam and smoke it left in its passage. The only stop of the train is for just 15 minutes, in Ano Gatzea, to continue "blowing" for a route with a total length of 13 kilometers and a time of about 90 minutes.

Here at Ano Gatzea railway station  we will meet one cafe, unique cell of life. Visiting the station in winter is not the easiest, because from the public, you have to go up a narrow road that barely fits a car, with a slope of over 20% where at the end to enter the train lines, to cross a tunnels always on the railway lines until the beautiful but deserted station of Ano Gatzea is revealed to you. The cafe is located in a hundred-year-old building that works winter-summer. despite the train now operates only in summer on a daily basis, and in spring and autumn every weekend. "The train makes a stop of fifteen minutes on the way to Milies and the same on the way. Some people manage to drink their coffee… In winter as you can see we are two souls.

On Sundays, however, the locals come for a walk, to remember that a few years ago it was beating here the heart of Pelion. The center of the village was the station - then there was no highway. People, products, materials, but also news, news and correspondence arrived here. There was also a market, the grocery store, the tailor shop, the samaradiko, the butcher shop, the warehouses ". THE George Kontodimitriou, the coffee man, a young lad, has a soul and does not put it down… He will hold the coffee of his family as long as he can.